There were several reasons why I decided to do a mini campaign against the Bismarck. It was a way of procrastinating. I had already mentioned to the Lone Warrior editor that I was working on a much larger campaign project. This campaign would serve as a break from the bigger project and produce an article sooner. Thus it provided an excuse for not finishing the bigger project. There was also nostalgia. My son, John, had played a wargame about the Bismarck many years ago. I had been recruited to command the German side. I still had all the notes and models etc. John had chosen to play out the final surface action in which the Bismarck was sunk. It’s one of my favorite wargaming memories. Also this was a chance to play out a style of campaigning I have often thought about. The idea is to wargame a series of historical battles each related to the next and see how they turn out. This system skips the map movement phase between battles and just does the battles. But it also carries over results from one battle to the next. For example, if a ship is sunk in the first battle, it cannot reappear in the next. Also, damage in one battle would effect ship performance in the next. I have pondered the idea for years. It’s time to try it. Perhaps the most important reason for the campaign was simply that the Royal Navy’s efforts to track down and sink the Bismarck strike me as a dramatic story. History In the summer of 1941 Britain was the only power fighting Nazi Germany. France had fallen; Russia and the U.S. were neutral. The British had won the Battle of Britain but were dependent upon a supply line stretching across the Atlantic. German U-boats were sinking cargo vessels at a frightful rate. Then in May 1941, the Bismarck, a powerful battleship, moved out to sea. As long as the Bismarck was afloat, she was a menace to Britain’s lifeline. She had to be sunk. It’s one of the great dramas of World War II. So I dug out the file on “ships”, sorted out the models, reviewed the rules and brushed up on the history. I started out with a plan for five battles. The Bismarck had evaded the Royal Navy and was well out at sea. She had gone far north and needed to swing south to get into the Atlantic. Bismarck and Prinz Eugen came south between Iceland and Greenland. There the British cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk detected them and began to shadow them as reinforcements rushed to the scene. On May 24, 1941 at about 0535 hours the first battle occurred. The Prince of Wales and the Hood fought a brief engagement with the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. It was a disaster for the Royal Navy. The Hood, pride of the fleet, blew up and sank in two pieces. The Prince of Wales withdrew. All this took about seven minutes. There was little damage to the Bismarck. The chase continued. Next, nine Swordfish torpedo bombers attacked the Bismarck. Only one torpedo hit, and it produced little damage. On May 26, at about 1540 hours, fourteen Swordfish flew off Ark Royal and attacked Sheffield by mistake. This would be my third battle in the campaign. About 1915 hours a second Swordfish attack found the Bismarck and came at her from all sides. Of the thirteen torpedoes dropped, only two hit. The first hit amidships causing minor damage. The second hit the steering rudder and jammed it at 12o right turn. The Bismarck could no longer maneuver. The Royal Navy now closed in for the kill. On May 27, at 0848 hours the Bismarck faced destruction in the form of King George V, Rodney, Dorsetshire, Norfolk and Maori. She was reduced to a burning hulk and finished off with torpedoes. This had been the battle John and I played many years ago. These five would be the campaign: Bismarck vs. Prince of Wales and Hood, the first Swordfish attack, the attack on the Sheffield, the Swordfish attack on Bismarck, and the final battle. Models and Rules Let’s consider models and rules. The models we used before were 1/4800 scale. One inch = 400 feet. Using this scale, the Bismarck at 823 feet long became a model just over 2 inches long. We had made top view silhouettes. John had carefully drawn in the gun turrets, etc. with a pencil on the small sliver of cardboard. The Prince Eugen was a smaller ship, 641 feet or a bit over an inch and a half. I had been looking forward to modeling the Swordfish. While not exactly a thing of beauty, it had an impressive combat record. When I translated its 45 foot wing span into 1/4800 scale, it came out roughly 1/8 of an inch. At that size I couldn’t put in much detail. I settled for representing each plane by a “T” drawn in navy blue. I put three in a V formation on a 1/2 inch disk of cardboard. I chose my usual rules for sea battles. I started with the firing system developed by Fletcher Pratt. The shooter estimates the distance from gun to target. Markers represent “splash marks” where the shot lands. Fire may be volley fire, a string of shots along a line. For example, if I estimate a ship is 15 cm away, I can place an arrow pointing to it and note “15 cm by 2 - 6 shots.” I have six guns. The first two shots land at 15 cm, the next two at 13 cm, and the last at 11 cm. I determine damage using the spade suits in a deck of cards. Each card represents specific damage. I deal one card for each hit. An ace is a hit in the magazine area; other cards signify damaged turrets, hull hits, fires, etc. This system is modified from Arthur Taylor. I further modified the rules for this specific situation. The Hood had thin deck armor, so I modified the rule so any hit on a turret could result in an explosion sinking the ship. The Prince of Wales was a new ship. She left port with technicians still aboard. One turret jammed during the historic battle. I wrote a rule saying a roll of six on D-6 would result in a jammed turret. The roll comes at the start of each move. To adapt the firing system for solo, I added a chance rule to the firing. After I had made all range estimates for firing, I rolled a D-6. 1-2 = deduct 2 cm from range; 3-4 = no change; 5-6 = add 2 cm to range. This was intended to counter any bias in my estimate. In general I only fired the big guns in surface actions; nothing smaller than 8". First Battle In the first battle I had some choices. I played the Germans as they were in 1941: line ahead formation, Prince Eugene first, Bismarck a mile behind. The British options were: 1. Line ahead formation Hood followed by Prince of Wales. Maneuver as a unit. 2. Same formation. Each ship maneuvers independently. 3. In combination with 1 or 2 have Norfolk and Suffolk attack from the rear. 4. Put Prince of Wales first in line ahead. I chose not to dice for any of the above and put Prince of Wales in front with Hood behind and to the left. (Did I mention I’m not a sailor?) To determine relative position I sketched a half circle near the Germans and diced 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 for the three segments of the arc. The die came up 3-4, so my two ships were approaching on a roughly perpendicular course somewhat ahead of the Prinz Eugen. The opening salvos favored the British. Prinz Eugen was hit in the hull and would sink in four turns, but Prince of Wales was hit and slowed. The Hood was masked by the Prince of Wales due to my poor choice of formation. In the next salvo the Bismarck was hit near the magazine, but did not explode (tough ship, lucky dice?). The Hood was now exposed to a full broadside by the Bismarck. She was hit near a magazine and blew up! (Pretty spooky.) But the next salvo punished the Bismarck. She took a hit on her “B” turret, hull damage, and an engine room hit. About this time Prinz Eugen sank and Prince of Wales took more damage, a brief fire aboard and a gun turret destroyed. But the Bismarck took a hit in her rudder and was unable to change course. The Prince of Wales pulled off damaged, but the Bismarck had neither power nor steering. Her fate was sealed. I called the campaign off at that point. Perhaps at a later time I’ll play out the Swordfish attack. I particularly like the attack on the Sheffield. The Sheffield, of course would not fire. They knew they were being attacked by friendly planes. A few pilots figured it out. There should be a die roll D-6 roll of 5-6 (individual) to see if the individual pilots do not attack. Also some torpedoes detonated upon landing in the water. Each torpedo should explode on a D-6 die roll of 1 or 2. In other attacks the Swordfish dropped torpedoes with a more reliable firing device so the rule applies only in this attack. I was more or less planning to use the clock system to determine attack angle for the planes. Roll a D-12 to select the angle of each plane’s attack. The final surface battle could be run as it happened more or less, but there are some interesting possibilities. You might want to dice for these. (1) Historically, a U-boat was in the area, but out of torpedoes. You could dice to determine how many torpedoes it has. (2) Royal Navy ships were low on fuel. Dice for each ship to see if it had to turn back before the battle. (3) Use the special Hood rule on any Royal Navy cruiser engaged. These are just a few ideas for solo players. They don’t do justice to one of the great campaigns in World War II naval history. Bibliography Angelucci, Enzo and Paolo Marticardi. World War II Airplanes, Vol I. (1976). Barnett, Correlli. Engage the Enemy more Closely: The Royal Navy in the Second World War. (1991) Batchelor, John. Fighting Ships of World Wars One and Two. (1976). Boyne, Walter J. Clash of the Titans: World War II at Sea. (1995). Chant, Christopher. An Illustrated Data Guide to Battleships of World War II. (1997). Forester, C.S. Sink the Bismarck! (1959). Jane, Fred T. Jane’s Fighting Ships 1944/5. (1971). Kenney, Ludovic. Pursuit: The Chase and Sinking of the Battleship Bismarck. (1974). Pratt, Fletcher. Fletcher Pratt’s Naval Wargames. (1978). Taylor, Arthur. Rules for Wargaming. (1971). Illustrations I shows the Bismarck (B) and Prinz Eugen (PE) and my half circle used to dice for the location of British ships. II shows the Prince of Wales (PW) and Hood (H) as I placed them at the start of action. The die roll had come up 4. III shows the clock system. This illustration is for the younger members who use digital time pieces. To get a random choice use a D-12. If you use two D-6 the result will tend to bias toward 7. Note that the ship shown is moving toward 12, and 6 is the rear. If you don’t have a D-12, playing cards - ace through queen - can substitute. 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